A Request for Recommendations

Alright tl.net, it's time for you all to come together and recommend me something. In the next year, I've decided that one of the things I want to do is expand the breadth of my reading tastes, and the best way to do that is to source all of your favorite books and read them myself.

My tentative goal is fifty books read by the end of the year, which will require quite a lot of recommendations, so don't be shy about it and tell me your favorite book so I can add it to the list. If I have read it before, or if someone else has already recommended it, I'll let you know, and you can give me another one.

I don't care if you think I will like it, I don't care what genre it's in, and I especially don't care how much it costs to buy it. If it's on Kindle, amazing! If not, I'll find a way to get it. Fret not, I am resourceful and pretty relentless when it comes to finding media. I also don't care if it's in the middle of a series, or that I need to read a bunch of other stuff to really appreciate it; recommend it to me anyway, and I will make accommodations.

If you don't particularly like books, I am willing to take recommendations of graphic novels or manga in its stead. This, I realize, might lead to me reading several hundred chapters of something, but it will be worth it if it's good, and if you like it, I'm certainly willing to give it a chance.

I promise to publish the list once I have it, and I will of course annoy you all throughout the next year by posting about my progress at certain intervals and writing about some of the works that inevitably inspire me to say something myself.

The List Thus Far:

1. The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro2. The Call of the Wild by Jack London3. Arsonist by Joaquin Zihuantanejo

Well, I hate to bring up basic math, but you realize that 50 books is basically one a week, right? That's probably not going to be sustainable, even with several hours of reading a night. Secondly, could you give us some more insight into why you are reading and what you have read before? Are you just trying to keep your brain active or are you trying to enrich your mind?

To reference an earlier argument in this thread, you only have so much life to read, and you should probably go in order of importance. I'm not sure the last 50 years is even worth touching until you have a thorough grounding in the stuff that's lasted for hundreds if not thousands of years.

I'm also going to assert that Moby Dick is one of the few novels that you should not read. Listen to it on an audio book.

and generally agreed to be the most difficult novel in the english language : Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon

Generally agreed by whom...? It's probably not even top 50.

On December 17 2018 02:56 Jerubaal wrote:Well, I hate to bring up basic math, but you realize that 50 books is basically one a week, right? That's probably not going to be sustainable, even with several hours of reading a night. Secondly, could you give us some more insight into why you are reading and what you have read before? Are you just trying to keep your brain active or are you trying to enrich your mind?

To reference an earlier argument in this thread, you only have so much life to read, and you should probably go in order of importance. I'm not sure the last 50 years is even worth touching until you have a thorough grounding in the stuff that's lasted for hundreds if not thousands of years.

I'm also going to assert that Moby Dick is one of the few novels that you should not read. Listen to it on an audio book.

Try "Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World" by Murakami. Its more sci-fi than his usual work, maybe with a Philip K Dick influence but done in Murakami's style. Its very good.

I would also recommend "Station 11" by Emily St. John Mandel, which is a book about a travelling Shakespeare company in a post apocalyptic world.

"#9 Dream" by David Mitchell is hallucinogenic and weird but also very cool coming of age sci-fi. I noticed someone else recommended Cloud Atlas, which is probably a superior novel in most ways, but #9 Dream has heart and is unique in a less gimmicky way (in my opinion).

On December 17 2018 18:34 Jockmcplop wrote:"#9 Dream" by David Mitchell is hallucinogenic and weird but also very cool coming of age sci-fi. I noticed someone else recommended Cloud Atlas, which is probably a superior novel in most ways, but #9 Dream has heart and is unique in a less gimmicky way (in my opinion).

I've only read three novels by Mitchell, but I'll recommend pretty much anything and everything by him. Bone Clocks and Thousand Autumns were both good, but Cloud Atlas epic scope and ambition make it stand out.

On December 17 2018 18:34 Jockmcplop wrote:"#9 Dream" by David Mitchell is hallucinogenic and weird but also very cool coming of age sci-fi. I noticed someone else recommended Cloud Atlas, which is probably a superior novel in most ways, but #9 Dream has heart and is unique in a less gimmicky way (in my opinion).

I've only read three novels by Mitchell, but I'll recommend pretty much anything and everything by him. Bone Clocks and Thousand Autumns were both good, but Cloud Atlas epic scope and ambition make it stand out.

I agree that anything by Mitchell is worth a read anyway. I just remembered that I bought Bone Clocks and never even read it. Thanks for reminding me

I've only read three novels by Mitchell, but I'll recommend pretty much anything and everything by him. Bone Clocks and Thousand Autumns were both good, but Cloud Atlas epic scope and ambition make it stand out.

I honestly never good the hang of all the hype about Cloud Atlas. It's a neat idea and fits well with Mitchell's typical episode-like style of writing but I found it a bit too esoteric. Nevertheless it's fun but I'd for sure prefer Thousand Autumns.

How does Bone Clocks compare to the other two? Though you are right that you can't really go wrong with Mitchell anyway.

Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy (Very biblical gothic American western novel. Considered McCarthy's finest work)A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, and Consider the Lobster - David Foster Wallace (Essay compilations ranging from reporting on awards for pornography to English grammar and how a cruise is not relaxing and fun as it seems)

On December 17 2018 02:56 Jerubaal wrote:Well, I hate to bring up basic math, but you realize that 50 books is basically one a week, right? That's probably not going to be sustainable, even with several hours of reading a night. Secondly, could you give us some more insight into why you are reading and what you have read before? Are you just trying to keep your brain active or are you trying to enrich your mind?

To reference an earlier argument in this thread, you only have so much life to read, and you should probably go in order of importance. I'm not sure the last 50 years is even worth touching until you have a thorough grounding in the stuff that's lasted for hundreds if not thousands of years.

I'm also going to assert that Moby Dick is one of the few novels that you should not read. Listen to it on an audio book.

One a week is very doable for anyone with a couple of hours a day. Agree that it's generally better to focus on older stuff, but there is a lot of valuable new stuff too.

Can't imagine getting through the duller parts of Moby Dick if I couldn't skim read.

These threads are better if people give reasons for their recommendations so:

I recommend Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. It's a good amble through history and the future, and while you might not agree with all of it, his way of writing and thinking makes you think.

It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it.

I'll try to recommend books that I've found memorable. It may have been a few years since I read some of them.

Japanese Tales - Translation by Royall Tyler, a really good collection of folklore from Japan in bitesize chunks that can be read in a flash.I Am a Cat (我輩は猫である）- Natsume Soseki; I love all his books, this was his first and it's a little goofy but it's adorable.The Master of Go （名人）- Yasunari Kawabata; I also love all his books. I have the Seidensticker translation, and I've enjoyed his translations. This is the only book by Kawabata that isn't about a shitty person cheating on his wife.Starting Point - Hayao Miyazaki; a collection of interviews of Miyazaki. More interesting than Turning Point IMO.Lilith - Fantasy book that's quite neatSolaris - sci fi book that's quite neatSpring and All - Interesting poetrypoetry by TS Eliot - any anthology you care to pick up.The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories - really nice collection.Kappa - Ryuunosuke Akutagawa; My favourite book by him.The Temple of the Golden Pavilion - Book that introduced me to Mishima

That's more than enough before I start recommending books on my shelf that were only a little interesting to me. Any of the Japanese authors would be worth looking into more if you like one book. I have found myself that I don't just read a bunch of books by various authors, but that I find an author I like that then I slowly read everything they've ever written. To me, that's the most effective way to not waste time looking for books you might not like. The other method being to get a good anthology of short stories, and look into the authors of the ones that were especially good.